California Gov. Jerry Brown, right, makes a toast to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto , second from left, during a luncheon held in his honor at the Leland Stanford Mansion in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014. Pena Nieto was ending a two-day visit to California. less

California Gov. Jerry Brown, right, makes a toast to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto , second from left, during a luncheon held in his honor at the Leland Stanford Mansion in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, right, helps out California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, by pulling in the California flag that was wrapping around Brown as he spoke at the 18th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Brown was the keynote speaker at the annual summit on protecting Lake Tahoe. less

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, right, helps out California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, by pulling in the California flag that was wrapping around Brown as he spoke at the 18th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit, Tuesday, Aug. ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, STF / Associated Press

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Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari discusses issues related to poverty in California during a news conference outside of the River City Food Bank in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, July 31, 2014. Kashkari said he spent a week living as a homeless person in search of a job to test Gov. Jerry Brown's claim that the state is making a comeback after the economic downturn. A video crew documented his week. less

Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari discusses issues related to poverty in California during a news conference outside of the River City Food Bank in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, July 31, 2014. ... more

Photo: Steve Yeater, Associated Press

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In this still frame from video provided by the Kasakari For Governor campaign, Neel Kashkari, the Republican candidate for California governor, speaks to the camera during a week he posed as a homeless and unemployed person on the streets of Fresno, Calif. Kashkari said Thursday, July 31, 2014, he made the video to highlight the disparity between incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown's claim that the state is making an economic comeback and the reality faced by the working poor in the nation's most populous state. less

In this still frame from video provided by the Kasakari For Governor campaign, Neel Kashkari, the Republican candidate for California governor, speaks to the camera during a week he posed as a homeless and ... more

California Governor Jerry Brown joined by his wife Anne Gust-Brown, as he speaks to the news media in front of the Governor's Mansion near the State Capitol on Tuesday June 3, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif.

California Governor Jerry Brown joined by his wife Anne Gust-Brown, as he speaks to the news media in front of the Governor's Mansion near the State Capitol on Tuesday June 3, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif.

Neel Kashkari wasn't even in grade school when Jerry Brown - in his first-ever televised gubernatorial debate - engaged in what one newspaper account described as a "slashing style of accusations and innuendo" during a "political street fight lacking even the thin veneer of courtesy."

Brown's dramatic matchup against Republican Evelle Younger may have mesmerized California voters and the 1978 audience of "Meet the Press" - but 36 years later, it looks positively genteel compared with the political smackdowns that fascinate millions on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on a daily basis.

That could make for interesting generational dynamics when Brown, now 76 and a three-term governor, and the 41-year-old Kashkari, who has marshaled social media as a key tool in his first run for office, go toe-to-toe Thursday night in their only scheduled debate of the gubernatorial campaign.

The one-hour event will be televised live from Sacramento at 7 p.m., competing with the opening game of the NFL season for viewers. Kashkari, however, has shown a penchant for getting coverage, even under tough circumstances.

With bare-bones funding in a long-shot race against Brown and his $22 million war chest, the Republican challenger turned a week in Fresno in July posing as homeless and jobless man into a viral sensation on YouTube. He also stole headlines from Brown when he crashed a speech the governor made to a teachers union convention.

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Taking chances

On the heels of a new Field Poll released Thursday showing Brown leading Kashkari by a landslide margin of 50 to 34 percent, political insiders suggest the Republican is likely to take risks during the debate in hopes of boosting his name recognition and generating a social-media buzz.

"There's a science to these debates, and the object is not really to lay out your vision for all the great things you're going to do in public policy," said Garry South, a Democratic political consultant who has trained candidates for such forums for decades. "It's to get your opponent's goat - and make him make mistakes."

Brown, seasoned by decades in public life, won't be easy to rattle. "He is a pro at this," South said.

But the governor "can be peevish and have a thin skin, particularly when he's confronted with someone who he thinks is a lesser politician" - a fairly lengthy list, South said.

"So Kashkari has to really push him," South said. "If I were advising him, I'd say, 'You'd better have some great one-liners to get him off his game.' "

Barbara O'Connor, professor emeritus of political communication at Cal State University Sacramento, predicted that Kashkari will "try to irritate Jerry" - perhaps needling him on some of Brown's signature issues like high-speed rail, which the challenger has dismissed as "the crazy train."

Brown's challenge

O'Connor says Brown will have to ignore such goading, while avoiding the appearance of being "maybe too wonky, too preachy" or too philosophical and "too Jesuitical," referring to the time Brown spent studying at a Jesuit seminary in the late 1950s.

Dan Newman, a spokesman for Brown's re-election campaign, said the governor is hoping for "a substantive discussion" - one without "the political gimmicks and performance art that (Kashkari) has shown a predilection for."'

He said Brown has prepared for the session, even though "the governor has been very busy with legislation on his desk, and he has a day job" - compared with Kashkari, a former investment banker and Treasury Department official "who is unemployed."

Brown "has a lot to be proud of," Newman said, "and it may be tough getting those accomplishments into a 30-second sound bite."

Recent highlights

The governor will probably point to his fourth straight balanced budget, which includes a $2.1 billion reserve and pays off $10.4 billion in state debt. He recently announced a deal with lawmakers that would more than triple the state's television and film tax credits, a move that he said would save thousands of jobs, and capped the legislative session with a bipartisan deal for a $7.1 billion water bond on the November ballot.

"It's hard to say things are so screwed up in Sacramento when there's not a lot of the bad news like in the old days - late budgets and big fights," said Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta. "For voters, it's like, no news is good news."

Kashkari's campaign aides say he has plenty of material to work with - including Democrats' recent decision to appeal a landmark court ruling striking down teacher tenure laws, and Tesla's expected decision to build its big new battery factory in Nevada instead of California.

What comeback?

"The governor touts the California comeback, but most Californians have no idea what that's about," said Pat Melton, Kashkari's campaign manager. "The governor is finally going to have to answer for failing schools and the millions of Californians who can't find work."

Melton said Brown's team "had the added advantage of dictating the terms of the debate, which for all intents and purposes is Neel's first."

And, he added pointedly, Brown "has been winning debates since before Neel was born."

How to watch

The debate between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republican challenger Neel Kashkari airs live from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday on KQED TV, the California Channel and C-Span. It is sponsored by KQED, Telemundo, the Los Angeles Times and the California Channel.

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